Embodiments of the invention relate to an array substrate, a manufacturing method thereof and a thin film transistor crystal display (TFT-LCD).
TFT-LCD comprises an array substrate, a colour filter substrate and a liquid crystal layer disposed between the array substrate and the colour filter substrate. The array substrate and the colour filter substrate are formed on two glass substrates with large dimensions, respectively. Moreover, they are formed on the corresponding LCD panel region of each of the glass substrates. A single glass substrate comprises a plurality of LCD panel regions, and the region between adjacent LCD panel regions is referred as blank region. Liquid crystal molecules are filled between the array substrate and the colour filter substrate after the assembling of the array substrate and the colour filter substrate, thus a finished product of TFT-LCD is obtained with following processes such as cutting. Before being assembled with the colour filter substrate, the array substrate should be tested, with the qualified ones proceeding to the assembling step and the disqualified ones proceeding to a repairing step.
In order to test the array substrates, various test lines are formed on the array substrate. FIG. 1 shows a schematic view of a structure of a conventional TFT-LCD array substrate. The TFT-LCD array substrate comprises a gate line 2b, a data line 5d and a common electrode line 9, with the gate line 2b connected to the gate electrode of the thin film transistor in the display region 10, and the data line 5d connected to the source electrode of the thin film transistor in the display region 10. In order to test the gate line 2b, the data line 5d and the common electrode line 9, a gate line test terminal 2G, a data line test terminal 5E and a common electrode line test terminal 9c are provided. There could be a plurality of the gate line test terminals 2G, with each of the gate line test terminals 2G connected to the gate line test line 5c, and each of the gate line test lines 5c connected to a portion of the gate lines 2b. There could also be a plurality of the data line test terminals 5E, with each of the data line test terminal 5E connected to the data line test line 5L, and each of the data line test lines 5L connected to a portion of the data lines. All of the test terminals are formed in the blank regions of the glass substrate. After the assembling and cutting steps, the obtained LCD panel remains only the area surrounded by the dashed line in the figure, the blank regions provided with the test terminals and a portion of the extensions of the data lines, the gate lines and the common electrode lines formed therein are cut away.
At present, in some of the LCDs, a gate line drive circuit is provided on the array substrate, and such circuit is referred as GOA (Gate On Array) circuit. The GOA circuit is used to drive the gate lines, thus it is connected to each of the gate lines.
As to the TFT-LCD array substrate comprising the GOA circuit, the test lines may be connected to the GOA circuit, the gate lines may be tested by inputting control signals into the GOA circuits, and thus the test cost is increased in view of the relatively more complicated control signals required.